1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid electrolytic capacitor and a method for manufacturing same, and particularly to a solid electrolytic capacitor in which an anode section of a capacitor element is electrically connected to an anode terminal through a pad member and a method for manufacturing same.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 9 is a cross sectional view of a conventional solid electrolytic capacitor. As shown in FIG. 9, the conventional solid electrolytic capacitor comprises a solid electrolyte type capacitor element 100, an anode terminal 111, and a cathode terminal 112, which are buried in an enclosure resin 120. The capacitor element 100 has an anode body 101 in which an anode lead 102 is planted, a dielectric layer 103 formed on a surface of the anode body 101, an electrolyte layer 104 formed on the dielectric layer 103, and a cathode layer 105 formed on the electrolyte layer 104.
The anode terminal 111 and the cathode terminal 112 include an anode terminal surface 115 and a cathode terminal surface 116, respectively, which are exposed on a lower surface 120a of the enclosure resin 120. To a surface of the anode terminal 111 on the opposite side to the anode terminal surface 115, joined electrically is a pad member 114 by welding means such as laser welding. A tip end part 102a of the anode lead 102 of the capacitor element 100 is electrically connected to a tip end part of the pad member 114. To a surface of the cathode terminal 112 on the opposite side to the cathode terminal surface 116, electrically connected is a part of a surface of the cathode layer 105 of the capacitor element 100. The pad member has a rectangular parallelepiped shape or columnar shape.
Conventionally, the rectangular parallelepiped pad member 114 is made by, as shown in FIGS. 10a and 10b, performing a punching process on a metal plate 140 which has a thickness tc equal to a height hc (cf. FIG. 9) of the pad member 114 to form a ladder plate member 141, and thereafter cutting the ladder plate member 141 along the line G-G and the line H-H to cut out a rung section 142.
However, in the conventional solid electrolytic capacitor, the rung section 142 (the pad member) is joined to the surface of the anode terminal 111 with its thickness direction directed in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the anode terminal 111. Therefore, the thickness tc of the metal plate 140 corresponds to the height hc of the pad member 114 of the capacitor element. Accordingly, in order to change the height hc of the pad member 114, the thickness tc of the plate 140 to be prepared must be changed, and thus the height hc of the pad member 114 cannot be changed easily.
In the pad member 114 which is joined to the surface of the anode terminal 111 as described above, all side surfaces of the pad member 114 are formed by cutting surfaces produced by the punching process and the cutting out of the rung section 142. Thus the joint surface of the pad member 114 joined to the anode terminal 111 and the joint surface of the pad member 114 joined to the anode lead 102 are not formed by the cutting surfaces.